The present invention relates to thermal energy (heat or cold) storage devices, especially for solar systems, which generally comprise huge containers of rocks; smaller, but still large, containers of water; or still smaller housings of metal tubes which contain chemicals which can absorb and give up heat as the system operates. For strength and to provide the desired self-support, these metal tubes must be relatively thick-walled so that they are too expensive for widespread use.
Many advantages would accrue if the industry could use thin sheets of plastic as containers for thermal storage chemicals. One proposed structure uses individual plastic tubes as chemical carriers. However, no simple and inexpensive support means is known for such individual tubes. An improved thermal storage system using plastic chemical carriers is described and claimed in copending application Ser. No. 920,962, filed June 30, 1978 now U.S. Pat. No. 4,287,942 granted Sept. 8, 1981. This application describes various basic concepts in plastic chemical carriers and support therefor, and the invention described herein relates generally to improvements in this basic invention.